THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT - Mark Reviews Movies

The Man in My Basement, Hulu

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | September 11, 2025

There are big ideas in The Man in My Basement—about the lingering impacts of history, guilt, prejudice, and trauma. Considering how little plot there actually is in director Nadia Latif and Walter Mosley's screenplay, it would seem as if there's plenty of time and room to explore those concepts and the characters' relationship to them with some significance, too.

Something is missing or not quite right with this adaptation of Mosley's novel, however. The ideas are there—inescapably so, since much of the story has characters discussing and debating them—but feel thin. Perhaps, it's because they're simply talked about over the course of the movie, while the filmmakers try to figure out how to turn an inherently absurd premise into something we might actually believe.

A bit more mystery, in fact, might have aided the proceedings here. Surely, Mosley's source material can't have taken this setup so literally. The conceit of a man who locks himself up in a cell in a stranger's basement feels like a metaphor on its face. Add to that the notion that the imprisoned man, a rich white guy, has many secrets and that his initially unwitting but gradually enthusiastic captor is a Black man, and the metaphorical potential of this story seems even more potent.

The man who unintentionally becomes a prison warden of sorts is Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins), whose family has lived in the same house located in the village of Sag Harbor, New York, for eight generations including him. After the death of his mother, Charles has come upon difficult times. He had to take out a loan against the house. It's a debt he's currently unable to pay, because he's unemployed and, because of how he lost his previous job, seemingly unemployable in the eyes of everyone in town.

His best friends Ricky (Jonathan Ajayi) and Clarence (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) have their own bills to pay and responsibilities to which to tend, and Charles seems too proud to ask them for assistance, even if they'd be able to offer it. There is no one left in his family who could help, save for an aunt who has had enough of her nephew's dependence on other people. It certainly doesn't help that both of the aunt's siblings, Charles' mother and uncle, died in that house while Charles was in charge of their care.

Charles is stuck, to put it plainly, and seems certain of losing the house to the bank. One day, a mysterious but polite man named Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe) arrives, asking if he could rent Charles' basement for some amount of time. He turns down the stranger at first, but once it becomes clear that he has no other way of getting any money anytime soon, Charles calls Anniston to discuss arrangements.

Actually, a lot happens or, more fittingly, doesn't happen before Anniston returns the call with an offer that Charles would be foolish to refuse—but might be even more foolish to accept, under the circumstances. Latif spends a lot of time with Charles, as his situation becomes increasingly dire, and opens an entire line of thought about his family's history and history of Black people in the region.

That basement is filled with antiques, so Charles contacts an antiques dealer named Narciss (Anna Diop), who finds a trio of African masks among the collection. While she believes it's vital proof of a historical record of African immigrants in the area, Charles never knew about them and, now, only cares that they might make him some cash. The two later debate what's to be done with those masks, why that history has been hidden for so long, and how little Charles, who comes from a family whose own history is somewhat unique, cares about these matters.

Ironically, the movie itself loses that subplot's significance as soon as Anniston does return. The man and the enigma that he becomes within this story are simply too overwhelming for much else to emerge from their presence.

Who is this man? At times, it seems as if even he isn't certain. Indeed, the only thing he knows is that he wants Charles' basement for the purposes of building and locking himself inside a prison cell. Anniston says he deserves to be punished for his past deeds, and once the stranger offers him even more money than the sizeable amount he had offered, Charles decides it's worth the trouble and the discomfort.

The most fascinating and compelling scenes of the movie, of course, are the dialogues between Charles and Anniston, who gradually reveal much more about themselves to each other than they probably have to anyone else. Both men know they have done wrong in the past, although even Anniston's first confession of an act that he feels he has to atone for would seem to crush whatever secrets Charles might have. Anniston shows such a sinister worldview that we might begin to believe he's some supernatural force, working in the shadows and eventually overtaking Charles' own view of himself.

Many of these questions and the general atmosphere of The Man in My Basement do go a long way here in exploring the ideas of the darkness inside these men specifically and humanity more broadly. The screenplay is so unfocused and uncertain, though, that we're left only with vague feelings about these ideas.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Book

Buy the Book (Kindle Edition)